The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence | 
 enlarge | Author: Martin Meredith
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 7950
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 768
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.8
ISBN: 1586483986
Dewey Decimal Number: 960.32
EAN: 9781586483982
ASIN: 1586483986
Publication Date: June 26, 2006
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Product Description
Fifty years ago, as Europe's colonial powers withdrew, Africa moved with enormous hope and fervor toward democracy and economic independence. Dozens of new states were launched amid much jubilation and the world's applause. African leaders, popularly elected, stepped forward to tackle the problems of development and nation-building. In the Cold War era, the new states excited the attention of the superpowers. Africa was considered too valuable a prize to lose. Today, Africa is a continent rife with disease, death, and devastation. Most African countries are effectively bankrupt, prone to civil strife, subject to dictatorial rule, and dependent on Western assistance for survival. The sum of Africa's misfortunes — its wars, its despotisms, its corruption, its droughts — is truly daunting. What went wrong? What happened to this vast continent, so rich in resources, culture and history, to bring it so close to destitution and despair in the space of two generations? Focusing on the key personalities, events and themes of the independence era, Martin Meredith's riveting narrative history seeks to explore and explain the myriad problems that Africa has faced in the past half-century, and faces still. From the giddy enthusiasm of the 1960s to the "coming of tyrants" and rapid decline, The Fate of Africa is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how it came to this — and what, if anything, is to be done.
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 Instant classic August 21, 2008
It is understandably difficult to write a one-volume history of a continent as diverse as Africa. Nonetheless, I think Mr. Meredith has written a fine example. In the process, he avoids the pitfalls commited by many Third Worldist ideologists who paternalize Africa and place the majority of the blame for its current state on external actors. Although Cold War rivalries certainly played a part, the reality, as Mr. Meredith ably documents, is that the continent's problems since independence have been first and foremost an indigenous leadership class often displaying stunning incompetence, greed, and bloodthirstyness.
Amazing Book July 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is by far one of the best books I have ever read on African politics. It is the perfect book for someone who is starting to learn about African politics, wants to improve their knowledge, or just wants to learn about African history. This is a passionate, well-written book that I strongly recommend reading-you will not be sorry you did.
Africa July 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A compendium of African history from the partition to present day. If you are interested in knowing about African leadership and economic issues - this is the book.
 Raises even more questions.. June 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
=== Summary ===
"This book follows the fortunes of Africa in modern times, opening in the years that it sped towards independence and encompassing the half-century that has since passed. It focuses in particular on the role of a number of African leaders whose characters and careers had a decisive impact on the fate of their countries." (13)
"Although Africa is a continent of incredible diversity, African states have much in common, not only their origins as colonial territories, but the similar hazards and difficulties they have faced. Indeed, what is so striking about the fifty-year period since independence is the extent to which African states have suffered so many of the same misfortunes."
"In reality, fifty years after the beginning of the independence era, Africa's prospects are bleaker than ever before." (681)
"Half of Africa's 880 million people live on less than US$1 per day. Its entire economic output is no more than $420 billion, just 1.3 per cent of world GDP, less than a country like Mexico." (682)
"Sub-Saharan Africa is home to just 10 per cent of the world's population but bears more than 70 per cent of the world's HIV/Aids cases... Teachers die at a faster rate than replacements can be trained. the skill shortage grows worse." (682)
"When Abdou Diouf of Senegal accepted defeat in an election in March 2000, he was only the fourth African president to do so in four decades." (679)
"After decades of mismanagement and corruption, most African states have become hollowed out. They are no longer instruments capable of serving the public good. Indeed, far from being able to provide aid and protection to their citizens, African governments and the vampire-like politicians who run them are regarded by the populations they rule as yet another burden they have to bear in the struggle for survival." (688)
=== Main Argument ===
Meredith only ventures to make one claim: the failure in Africa is due to a failure in leadership (inexperience/incompetence, stubbornness/personality, corruption/greed, even downright tyranny.) He is more concerned with providing a morass of personalities, events, and statistics and letting the reading wade through it themselves. "It suffers from a tendency to emphasize the lurid details rather than examine why such patterns of behavior persisted."
== Contentions (Agreements/Disagreements) ==
Meredith's argument begs the question why leadership failed on such a spectacularly wide level in the first place. It is implausible to attribute this failure to individual personalities (it cannot be that every African statesman was of lower quality than their Western counterparts.) So what environmental factors were there? He briefly touches on many of them, but gives no idea as to their relative importance:
* Contemporary factors: idea of nationalism quickly snowballs.
* Historical factors: ethnic tensions, lack of national identity, types of colonial management.
* Foreign policy factors: meddling by former colonial masters, Cold War tensions.
* Cultural factors: use of military power to settle scores (?), steal from government for factional gain.
* Economic factors: poverty, wide-spread discontent, uneducated masses. (Newly capitalist countries are likely to create the conditions for first generation greed. See China.)
* Political factors: no frameworks to limit corruption (free media, checks and balances, political experience/history, good civil servants).
=== Contentions (Part II) ===
He also talks about the mass movement towards democratization, but is incoherent in explaining how/why it materialized and unconvincing in labeling it as the new lodestar. "During the 1990s, at least 25 countries established 'multi-party democracies.'" (677) Part of this, I am sure, is because we are in the middle of this new phase. Here are some of the factors regarding democratization:
* Contemporary factors: first batch of dictators die of old age, resign, coup'd, find more pleasure in telling stories, etc.
* Foreign policy factors: regional powers emerging, regional policing, increased usage of (surprisingly effective!) international sanctions.
* Cultural factors: people are tired of dictators and war, groundswell of movement.
* Economic factors: nothing left to plunder.
* Political factors: ...
=== Insights Raised (wrt present-day Africa) ===
Meredith mostly does not offer solutions. But, one can examine the past to see what commercial failures existed:
* Corruption and contractual "fees" create operational difficulties/slowness.
* History of "nationalizing" commercial/Western property to fund corrupt governments.
* Even good governments become corrupt or have the constant threat of being overthrown.
* Groundswell of discontent against all signs of Western capitalism is a cultural theme and continental paranoia (justified or not).
=== Raised Questions ===
* Why did Africa fail? What are the relative importance of factors behind the decline of African states between freedom and present-day? And where does colonial history, indigenous society, trade barriers, etc. come into play?
* Given how shared the fate of the continent is, are these factors shared between all the nations on the continent? Or did the factors only impact a handful of nations and cause a snowball effect (see: land-lock hypothesis)?
* What about the countries that did do well (eg. Botswana, Senegal)? These are glossed over. What caused their exceptional performance?
* Why didn't South Africa decline like its neighbors? Did the white rule there help? All the whites clamoring for "no majority rule" or claiming Africans weren't equipped to govern themselves are painted as ignorant. But it is true that there was no institutional knowledge of political systems upon freedom; knowledge takes time to transfer over.
* Where do we go from here? What time period are we currently in and what can we learn from the past to move forwards in the present?
Extremely well-written recent history that makes you sad and mad May 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In only 688 pages Martin Meredith succeeds in capturing the recent history of more or less the whole of (sub-Saharan) Africa, throwing in a few countries above the Sahara for good measure. After a brief introduction, he starts off at independence of most countries, and what you read does not make you happy. With only very few exception new rulers with initially good intentions turn within no-time into greedy, ruthless killers that divide the loot (read "the treasury"and "the natural resources of their countries") among themselves, their close familiy, their tribe and their cronies. When things get too obvious, a military coup follows, after which the new leaders do exactly the same. And in the meantime the common people suffer, be it from the lawlessness of Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, the economic ruins in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, or the denial of Mbeki in South Africa that HIV causes AIDS. And these are only a few of the countless examples that make you feel quite depressed. Despite all the foreign aid that is being poured into a continent that has such rich resources (gold, diamonds, oil and a host of minerals), the economic situation of most people has only deteriorated since independence. and this is also in stark contrast to for example Southeast Asia that has gone through an economic explosion.
I regularly work in Africa in collaborative scientific research projects on infectious diseases and I see abysmal hospital facilities, people (including colleagues) dying from diseases that can easily be cured and hot-shots whose only attitude is "what is in it for me?" (and they are so shameless that they actually ask you that question). But I also see tons of very dedicated people -mainly in the lower echelons-, trying to make the best of the meagre resources they have available, people who thoroughly know how to enjoy life and are as hospitable as can be. I always tell them that they are too friendly and slightly naive in believing the promises made. If in the west we would have a ruler like Mugabe, we would have kicked him out years (and put him in prison for good measure).
In my opinion education is key to solving the problems of Africa: educated people are people who can make their own decisions, are able to critically evaluate their options and ultimately can decide together what is best for their country. And yes, maybe in some instances it will be necessary to re-consider borders so that they coincide better with historical delineations between tribes and religions. But it will ask for vision, courage and patience and the question is whether there will be sufficient time available...
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